Local company receives National Science Foundation grant

Cedar Rapids — The National Science Foundation has awarded a Cedar Rapids-based company a $256,000 grant to test out its digital tool that aims to reduce risks in health care.

Presaj Inc. is a health care risk assessment and mitigation company founded by Dr. James Levett, a retired cardiothoracic surgeon, and Travis Mathison, a local software engineer.

The company recently received the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research grant totaling $256,000.

With this funding, Levett and Mathison will study the effectiveness of the methodology they’ve created for their risk assessment digital tool. Over the next six months, they will measure the risk factors of patients receiving coronary artery bypass surgery at UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital.

“We think we have a concept that’s worth something,” said Levett, the CEO of Presaj.

The company has developed a digital tool that uses artificial intelligence to identify steps throughout the health care process — from check-in to the recovery room — to identify the greatest risks to patients, based on the specific procedure and their underlying health conditions. It also accounts for factors like staff fatigue or outdated clinical equipment, Levett said.

For example, the risk for complications for an average, otherwise healthy patient receiving a coronary bypass surgery is about 1 percent to 2 percent. But if the patient has diabetes, is overweight and hypertensive and previously had heart surgery, their risk of complications rises to about 5 percent to 8 percent, Levett said.

The system would flag these risks on the electronic medical record system, serving as a reminder for health care providers where the greatest risk lies with each patient.

“Doctors and nurses are busy, and they’re doing the best they can,” Levett said. “We’re not trying to tell them what to do, we’re just flagging the critical areas for that particular patient.”

By flagging these risks, the goal is to reduce medical errors and improve patient outcomes following medical and surgical procedures.

The idea for the tool comes from Levett’s 40-year career completing cardiac and thoracic surgical procedures.

“I was always doing surgeries that had risk, so I was always thinking about risk,“ Levett said. ”I would walk into an (operating room) on a regular basis wondering, ‘Am I sure I’m thinking about everything I need to think about for this patient? Is everything front of mind that should be?’“

Levett and Mathison completed the Iowa Startup Accelerator program at NewBoCo last year before applying for the National Science Foundation. Once they successfully complete this phase of their research, they plan to apply for a second grant to further develop the software.

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